Suns Bench a Third of League-High Payroll As Jimmy Butler Rumors Swirl

In the midst of reports about the Suns’ interest in Jimmy Butler, Phoenix benched two players who could be involved in a potential trade for the Heat star.

The Suns brought Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkić off the bench for Monday’s game against the Sixers, the first time the two did not start since joining Phoenix last season. Phoenix won in Philadelphia, 109–99, which snapped a four-game losing streak. The Suns are still outside of a play-in spot with a 16–18 record.

Beal and Nurkić account for $68.3 million in combined salary, about 48.5% of the $140.59 million soft salary cap of each NBA team. It’s nearly one-third of the team’s payroll this year, which at $217.8 million, is the largest in the league and $31.5 million over the second apron threshold.

Beal, who is in the third year of a five-year, $251 million deal, makes $50.2 million this season—about $1 million less than Kevin Durant. Nurkić has two years remaining on a four-year, $70 million deal and earns $18.1 million this season.

One Move to Make

In trading for Durant and Beal over the last two seasons—which came after Mat Ishbia purchased the team, together with the WNBA’s Mercury, in 2023—the Suns not only put a ton on their books but also sacrificed most of their draft equity. Phoenix traded or gave away the higher end of a pick swap for all of its draft picks until 2030. The team’s only draft asset until the end of the decade is a 2026 second-round pick from the Nuggets.

Fortunately for the Suns, the offers for Butler, whom the Heat have suspended for seven games and are actively shopping, have not been attractive to Miami, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. He called Phoenix “the one exception.”

“The irony of this situation is the best fit and most aggressive team for Jimmy Butler is maybe the one out of the 29 teams that has the hardest time getting him. That’s the Phoenix Suns,” Windhorst said Sunday on SportsCenter. 

Butler is making $48.5 million this year, the final year of a three-year, $146 million deal. Because the Suns will likely keep Durant and Devin Booker, Beal would need to be included in the trade to make the money match. 

However, Beal is one of just two players in the NBA with a no-trade clause (the other is LeBron James), which the three-time All-Star would need to waive in a deal. The salary and apron complications make it so that a third or even fourth team may need to be involved to execute the trade.